People were shocked in June 2018 when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), unable to hide her contempt for President Donald Trump or anyone associated with him, urged her supporters to harass Trump administration Cabinet officials. “And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” she railed, “you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

By today’s standards, Waters’ rhetoric sounds almost tame.

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Seven years later, after the George Floyd riots, the “defund the police” protests, the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that swept college campuses following the October 7 massacre in Israel, and attempts to bankrupt and even jail Trump, radical rhetoric has become normalized.

A social media post from conservative radio host Erick Erickson last week struck me as extreme initially. He wrote, “We are watching the slow motion collaboration of the American press corps and political left pushing fringe progressives towards murder all while claiming, falsely, Trump is getting people killed. And it is a press + political left collaboration towards murder.” 

However, after reading the post a second time, I realized this is precisely what’s happening: the incendiary rhetoric from Democrats and the legacy media is giving “fringe progressives” the green light to dial up the violence.

Axios recently published a round-up of House Democrats saying their constituents at town halls and in one-on-one meetings are telling them “civility isn’t working” and to prepare for “violence … to fight to protect our democracy.” 

Voters told one Democrat, who wished to remain anonymous, “what we really need to do is be willing to get shot” [when visiting ICE facilities or federal agencies]. “Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough … [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.” 

We’re increasingly seeing far-left extremists, emboldened by the rhetoric they hear from Democrats, take matters into their own hands. Last month, we watched the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles quickly spiral into violence, for example. Then, on July 4, 11 individuals carried out a “preplanned” ambush on law enforcement officers at the ICE Prairie Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The Department of Justice has charged 10 of the 11 individuals with attempted murder.

Last week, a left-wing lunatic targeted law enforcement officers at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas. In a recent news release, ICE reported that assaults on agents have increased by 700% “as activists masquerading as immigrant advocates continue to impede operations. On July 2, a man repeatedly rammed an ICE vehicle with his car in Linda Vista, California, before three activists attacked agents.”

ICE agents are not the only targets of political violence. In May, two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot dead in Washington, DC. Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, has been charged with shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, outside a midtown Manhattan hotel.

Mangione quickly became a hero among the Left. Rather than express outrage over Mangione’s crime, many celebrated Thompson’s murder, citing UnitedHealthcare’s record of denying healthcare claims. They justified Mangione’s actions because they, too, had been denied insurance coverage in the past.

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York addressed the topic in a recent column. He looked at the Axios report, the latest polls showing a more than 50% plunge in the number of Democrats who say they are “extremely or very proud to be American,” the increased use of violence against ICE agents, and support in far-left circles for radicals who have committed politically motivated murder. York concluded the obvious: “[T]hese are Democrats who have moved beyond the defeat-them-at-the-ballot-box stage of politics, and even beyond the protest-by-civil-disobedience stage. They’re ready to turn a political fight into a physical fight.”

Are Democratic politicians and pundits hoping that their extreme rhetoric will drive some of the “fringe” members of the party to violence? It sure looks that way.

A SENSIBLE LOOK AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT CUTS

Of course, while Democratic politicians are willing to talk tough, file articles of impeachment against Trump, interrupt the press conferences of Trump Cabinet officials, and bully ICE officials at immigration detention centers, they don’t want to do the “dirty work” themselves.

As one House Democrat told Axios, “Not only would that be a gift to Donald Trump, not only would it make the job of Republicans in Congress easier if we were all mired in legal troubles …”

But if their rhetoric can incite fringe Democrats to do the dirty work for them, then perhaps they’ve fulfilled their mission?